Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 416
him; for acknowledging the Divine and living an evil life are
opposites. When such in the other life enter into the state of
their interiors, and are heard speaking and seen acting, they
appear foolish; for from their evil lusts they burst forth into all
sorts of abominations, into contempt of others, ridicule and
blasphemy, hatred and revenge; they plot intrigues, some with
a cunning and malice that can scarcely be believed to be
possible in any man. For they are then in a state of freedom to
act in harmony with the thoughts of their will, since they are
separated from the outward conditions that restrained and
checked them in the world. In a word, they are deprived of
their rationality, because their reason while they were in the
world did not have its seat in their interiors, but in their
exteriors; and yet they seemed to themselves to be wiser than
others.
[3] This being their character, while in the second state they
are let down by short intervals into the state of their exteriors,
and into a recollection of their actions when they were in the
state of their interiors; and some of them then feel ashamed,
and confess that they have been insane; some do not feel
ashamed; and some are angry because they are not permitted to
remain permanently in the state of their exteriors. But these are
shown what they would be if they were to continue in that
state, namely, that they would attempt to accomplish in secret
ways the same evil ends, and by semblances of goodness,
honesty, and justice, would mislead the simple in heart and
faith, and would utterly destroy themselves; for their exteriors
would at length burn with the same fire as their interiors, and
their whole life would be consumed.
507. When in this second state spirits become visibly just
what they had been in themselves while in the world, what
they then did and said secretly being now made manifest; for
they are now restrained by no outward considerations, and
therefore what they have said and done secretly they now say
and endeavor to do openly, having no longer any fear of loss of
reputation, such as they had in the world. They are also